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Traditional Pest Management Practices and Beliefs of Different Ethnic Tribes of Meghalaya, North Eastern Himalaya
D. M. Firake
1*, D. Lytan
2, D. P .Thubru
2, G.T. Behere
1, P.D. Firake
1, N. S. Azad Thakur
1Keywords: Traditional practices, Pest management, Meghalaya
1ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region, Umroi road, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103, India
2College of Post Graduate Studies, Central Agriculture University, Umroi road, Barapani, Meghalaya-793103, India
INTRODUCTION
Meghalaya state is a part of North Eastern Himalayas and it is a land-locked territory with a geographical area of 22 429 km
2, lying between 25° 47' and 26° 10' N latitude, and 89° 45' and 92°
47' E longitude. It is exceptionally rich in biodiversity of insect pests and their natural enemies (Firake et al. 2012a; 2012b), the Khasi and Jaintia hill districts of the state are one of the richest botanical habitats of Asia. The region is inhabited by three main tribal groups, the Khasi (42%), the Jaintia (12%) and the Garo (32%), which together comprise 86% of the state’s total population of 2.3 million. Besides, frequent dynamics in food grain production, climate of the region is highly conducive for the occurrence and multiplication of several insect pests. These insect pests cause enormous damage to the crops resulting into shortage of food production in the region. Stored grain pests of worldwide importance including rodents also cause huge losses.
The state is rich in traditional knowledge, thus different tribal groups of the region preferred to use their own traditional practices based on local resources, which they inherited from their forefathers. The traditional practices are important element in local life and are found to be excellent for the management of several pests. Moreover, these practices facilitate proper utilization of available bio-resources ethnologically for various socio-economic and developmental purposes.
Though, some important traditional pest management practices from different regions have been reported (Sinha 2010; Sinha et al. 2004); still there is huge scope to document common traditional practices of the region. Therefore, in this study we
aim to collect important pest management practices used by farmers of the region. This comprehensive information would be further useful for other farmers of the country and also to the researchers for its proper scientific evaluation and validation.
About 14 villages of two districts (Ri-bhoi and East Khasi hills) of state were visited during various training/awareness programmes, demonstrations and survey conducted either by ICAR institute or state government (during 2010 to 2012).
Additionally, three main villages of Jaintia hill district were also surveyed during various cropping seasons. Information on different pest management practices was collected through informal discussion with the group of 35-40 farmers (comprising both male and females), gathered for the programmes and adaptability of practices was also confirmed.
Headmen (chief) of villages were informed prior to discussion and target was successfully achieved with the help of local language translator. Attempts were also made to understand the belief/logic behind each common practice.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
All the available efficient traditional pest management practices commonly used by the tribal farmers of the region are presented in Table 1.
Overall study indicated that, farmers intelligently use locally available natural resources for the management of noxious pests. Majority of practices were based on specific mechanisms or beliefs of the different tribes, which was either gained through years of experiences or from their preceding generations. Plants or products mentioned in the study (viz., neem, jayur, tobacco, jackfruit, bamboo,
* Corresponding author’s E-mail: [email protected]
Indian Journal of Hill Farming 26(1):58-61 Available online at www.kiran.nic.in
Short Communication
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Table 1: Traditional pest management practices commonly used by the tribal farmers of the region
SN Traditional practices Target Belief/Remark
1 Placing tin or wooden plate containing rice Birds Birds attracts to feed on rice grains and stuck to the plate grains and latex of jackfruit (Artocarpus surface
heterophyllus) into the paddy field
2 Use of gummy sticks in paddy field: Birds When bird rest and/ or sit on the stick for feeding the rice Rolling of gummy thread (of latex) over the grains, get stuck to the gummy portion. After that, farmers bamboo sticks and fix it in the field remove the captured birds.
3 Placing bird perches in paddy and Birds Predation: while resting on the sticks bird predates on
vegetable field insect pests
4 Placing cow blood inside wooden containers Birds Repellent: foul smell coming out form rotten blood repels (mostly bamboo pipe) into the paddy field the birds
5 Sprinkling of domestic ash on vegetables Defoliators Ash acts as a corrosive materials and helps in desiccation and soft or water loss from insect body
bodied insects
6 Placing green bamboo sticks into the Stem borers, Bamboo serves as a bird perches
irrigation source of paddy field leaf folder Sap of raw bamboo shoot contain insecticidal principle and birds
7 Burning of crop residue after harvesting of Hibernating Resting stages of insect pests get eradicated due to
paddy and maize stages of burning
insects, mostly stem borers
8 Placing of rotten crab/frog on sticks in Gundhi bug Faull smell attract gundhi bugs and destroy the bugs after
paddy field collection
9 Crushing of Jaiur-blai (Zanthoxylum Parasites Smell of jayur repels the parasites like leech, nematodes, oxyphyllum Egdew) fruits on the body parts worms etc.
before working in the paddy field
10 Placing of dried neem (Azadirachta indica) Rice weevil Neem leaves are both repellent and antifeedent leaves into the stored seeds and moths
11 Placing of small pine branches into the Stem borer, Pine exudates contain toxic principle that kills the insects.
paddy field leaf folder Moreover, it reduces the green algae in rice field and also and case acts as a bird perches
worm
12 Use of local (bamboo made) rat bait station Rodents Wooden bamboo bait stations/ containers protect the (Figure 1), traditional bamboo made traps poison baits from weather calamities and non target (Figure 2) and few conventional traps poisoning. It also increases the efficacy of the bait.
utilizing local techniques Traditional bamboo made rat traps are highly efficient, easily available and cheaper also, therefore these traps are also popular in addition to some commercial traps.
13 Spraying of aqueous excreta of silkworm Leaf folder Killing action and repellents for leaf folder on paddy and vegetables and rice blast Some people believe that it also cure blast disease
disease
14 Placing of citrus/orange peels into the Stem borer, Smell of orange peels repels the insects
paddy field leaf folder
and skippers
15 Keeping slices of pumalo (Citrus grandis Stem borer Smell of pumalo repels the insects Osbeck) in the paddy field and leaf
folder
16 Use of iron wire for removal of grub from Red palm It kills the grubs (Mechanical control)
infested areca nut trees weevil
17 Smoking below the hanging maize cobs in Rice weevil Smokes repels the stored grain pests the kitchen
18 Covering of banana bunch by polythene or Flea beetle Insects cant reach to the fruit surface cloth bags
19 Spraying of boiled tobacco (Nicotiana Lepido- It kills the pests. Moreover, tobacco contains insecticidal tobacum) extract on vegetables pteran pests alkaloid, nicotine.
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pine and citrus etc) are commonly used for the management of insect pests in different parts of the country, showing their popularity among the people (Kalaisekar et al. 2008; Bhattacharjee and Ray 2010; Das and Saikia 2010; Sharma and Borthakur 2008; Sarangi et al. 2009)
Furthermore, jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) latex is being used as a bird lime or for attracting and trapping the birds in different places (Elevitch and Manner 2006; Mortan 1987;
Online sources as on 24.01.12: http://
www.fruitsinfo.com/Jackfruit.php; http://
www.cropsreview.com/jackfruit.html; http://creole- cuisine.com/2012/01/what-is-jackfruit-in-creole- cuisine/ and http://jackfruitlatex.blogspot.com/).
Fruits and seeds of Jaiur-blai (Zanthoxylum oxyphyllum Egdew) are employed as an aromatic tonic in fever, dyspepsia, and expelling roundworms (Kalia et al. 1999), besides it exhibit good antibacterial, antifungal, anthelmintic activities (Elevitch and Manner 2006) and insecticidal properties (Mehta et al. 1981; Kokate et al. 2001;
Udo et al. 2004; Owusu et al. 2007). Additionally, larvicidal properties of pines (Ansari et al. 2005) and bamboo (Anonymous 1948) have also been reported.
Management of rice pests by erecting bird perches (Bhattacharjee and Ray 2010) and attracting the gundhi bugs through rotton crabs (Bhattacharjee and Ray 2010; Deka et al. 2006) have been reported from different corners of the region. Red palm weevil is the severe pest of areca nut in the state and past report suggested its management through mechanical destruction (local word ‘Peit Ksain Kwai’) of grubs (Umdor 2004).
Moreover, some cultural and mechanical practices including local rodent traps observed in this study
are also being utilized in several places (Sinha 2010;
Umdor 2004; Barooah and Pathak 2009).
Many traditional pest control practices from tribal areas have been improvised and further utilized in the country, few of them includes popular
‘Remodelled rat trap’ of Tamilnadu (Narayanasamy 2006), ‘Improvised rotten crab trap’ of Meghalaya (Sinha et al. 2007; Pathak et al. 2001) and popular
‘Fermented castor solution trap’ of Tamil Nadu for white grub control (Online source as on 30.12.11:
h t t p : / / a g r i t e c h . t n a u . a c . i n / i t k / Inde_techknowledge_dist.html). Besides, several bio-pesticide products have also been developed from traditional knowledge. However, it is worth to note that, all traditional practices are not eco- friendly; few practices may harm the ecosystem by direct or indirect means viz. killing or destruction of birds, frogs as found in some practices resulting in disturbance to the ecosystem.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors are highly thankful to the Director, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya for giving us the precious opportunity for different training programmes and demonstrations. Sincere thanks also go to the Agricultural Officers, State government of Meghalaya, for their valuable help during the course of study.
Fig. 1: Locally made rodent bait station/container
A
B
Fig. 2: Commonly used rat traps (A. Vaithang, trap, B. Hnawhtawt trap)
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